The Halo Modding Tool That Took 20 Years to Make
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- After 20 years the legendary Halo modding tool known as Prometheus has been released, but it's not the same Prometheus you remember.
Download Prometheus here: github.com/gri...
I love seeing the Half-Life 2 assets inside of Halo 2, the gaming juggernauts of 2004 crossing over.
This is how I felt with GTA San Andreas crossing over to THUG2/Pro, that 2004 aesthetic man
Man, what an incredible tool! OG halo 2 modders dreamed of something like this back in the day.
Doorrman!!!! What up dudeeee
All this stuff was possible back in the day. It was just a secret that only a few people could do.
The OG modder showin' up!
I would love to see you make a mod with this someday
@@doootuz What's up man its halo0001
5:50 “Now, I know no one is actually going to use this tool for the original Xbox version of Halo 2…”
lol
lmao
lmfao even
You bet I’m gonna use this for OG, are you kidding? ❤
Thank you so much for releasing this!
^^^^^^^^^ this
my goal is to have custom maps made by this tool running on OG xboxes by July...
Imagine a super polished halo 2 map pack for og xbox work all the good cartographer maps
We really out here
if you are planning something and need testers please let me know. I have some modded boxes and friends for testing.
I just hope you release stuff that you make for OG Halo 2 on the steam workshop as well so that more people can experience it.
hooooly shit, the original prometheus pops into my mind once every couple months. I was an annoying kid on halomods from like '03-'06. I remember (trying) to help work on h2edit, one of my proudest days was when GameInformer published a magazine article on Halo modding tools and they showed a screenshot of the program with the splash screen I made. I think my mom still has a scan of the article haha.
Your tool is incredible. Seeing passion projects like this always lights a fire under my ass and keeps me moving. Congrats on your accomplishment.
fellow annoying kid from the halo mods forum. good memories ❤
what was your username back in the day lol
My mans I would be excited to see your mod with this someday
6:40 this tool has undo redo-
*ABSOLUTE MODDING*
We implemented this feature just for you son. We love you and our customoers.
As a founding member of the first halo modding team thanks for continuing the dream.
I would love a mod from ya someday
Like Halo 1? I remember HMT/Sparkedit. Oh boy
LOOK AT THESE PIXELS!!!!
Awesome release!
You know what this would be sick for, is compiling all of our Digsite map releases into a psuedo-official "Digtacular Pack" for Xbox. I was wondering if we might be able to team up with the Insignia team to have them host it through the in-game content downloader, too. Sean told me about this project so I've been super excited to see it come to fruition. Great work!
That would be excellent! I could see it bringing in a lot of players as well
I've been able to convert quite a few already with only minor shading issues. The biggest blocker on converting the rest is mostly the shader conversion process. There's some other minor things like certain objects not having physics models (which MCC seems to generate automagically, probably from the collision model or something), but that's relatively easy to fix.
That's such a cool fun idea!! 'Digtacular Map Pack', Amazing!
That would be an incredible
@@Grimdoomersign the contract big boy, sign the contract
the halo modding community is about to go wild this year, awesome work. Looking forward to Prometheus going open source!
This is a trip, I haven't thought about Prometheus in years. I remember reading about it waaaaay back when on HaloMods so it's extremely cool to see the spiritual successor actually release. The work you've done here is nothing short of spectacular, especially the shader work. Really cool stuff
Gonna dig out the OG Xbox tonight for sure
I would love to see your mod someday
Gotta say, this looks absolutely baller. While I am not a Halo modder I've got some experience with reverse engineering with games like Dying Light, Dead Island, Call Of Juarez, and some smaller projects like unpacker for Doom Eternal. Was going to make a map editor for Dead Island but canned it whenever I found out you could just use Dying Light's map editor (all you had to do was change the version number in the raw hex code lol). Was also trying to recreate a beta area of the map named "Act2B" which I made a video on if you are interested. I'm currently busy with an even bigger project but will probably still work on it. Was also thinking of making a map editor for Borderlands 2 as you can edit the maps in the first game but can't really in the second game cause all the files are cooked. Anyway, always glad to see more people pick up this sort of hobby, cause it makes every thing open source lmao.
Nice work - pretty amazing. OG Halo guy banned by Tural for something I don't remember 20 years ago.
That sucks
Lmoa. Fk Tural, all my homies hate Tural.
If you ever open source this, so help me god I will mash it back into Halo 1
It is going open source
Please do, Halo one is the only one I like
Doesn't Halo 1 already have total modding tools? Or are you talking for OG Xbox H1? Because that would be dooooope.
What a trip down memory lane. I remember looking at a lot of these custom Halo 2 maps in awe on Halo Mods in 2005
This is awesome. I remember when this was announced and N- being in charge of the whole thing.
Incredible work! The level editor looks like a better version of Sapien
I lurked halomods around the mid to late 2000s, but mostly was around it's inverse of modhalo and later followed the regulars from there to opencarnage. Though I mostly was just talking to other modders directly with xfire (RIP). I remember reading about Prometheus and thought "damn, sucks that it's not gonna happen", here's hoping it can get full support because the Halo 2 xbox modding scene honestly probably has about as large a community as Halo 2 MCC's.
Fr ❤
5:05 Need that kind of thing in MCC. Getting Xbox accurate shaders and lighting would help with its various visual issues massively.
I believe shaders bugging out is also a massive issue with xbox emulation as well.
The disparity is partially due to screenspace shaders being hardcoded for the Xbox's 4:3 640*480 resolution. Forcing the game to run at 720i on the OG Xbox results in similar issues we see today in MCC.
This is so very impressive. Hats off my man! This video is going viral I am telling you.
Yooo, you're the guy who recently decided to drop those THPS exploits, that explains a lot!
It is viral homie!!!
Wow... Finally! I remember those posts and the mythos of Prometheus. IIRC, Prometheus was eventually going to be an AIO for all 3 halos at the time.
The bsp viewer looks fantastic. Bringing me back to using Entity.
Thanks for this!!!
Man, I remember using tools like HMT, Hex Editor, and Spark Edit to mod Halo: Combat Evolved back in the day, good times! It’s great to see new modding tools still being developed for Halo!
dothalo was as much of a staple in my childhood as limewire
This is awesome! I’d love to see a video with more technical details, or some more info about how the OG Halo engine worked (with it’s tag system and all)
Me too. That would be interesting even if I didn’t understand a lot of it.
8:18 Not gonna lie, I'm glad you changed your mind about this lol. I was a little skeptical that creating modding tools for a console game from 2004 would help pad out your resume in 2025. Best of luck finding a job!
Thank you for going into detail on why the file was extremely difficult to work with. I had so many questions at first but I kept listening and they were addressed. Nice video!
Well done man, this was clearly a lot of work and an incredible amount of passion. I hope someone reaches out to you with job offers if you haven't already!
Damn dude, what a massive blast of nostalgia that was! I used to hang around the HaloMods forum all the time back in the day, I never posted much but there was 1 mod for Lockout I released and a couple of reskins of the Warthog. I vividly remember drooling over the potential possibilities of Prometheus and I used to always check their website to see if there were any updates. Glad someone finally came through with what they originally promised, really amazing work :D
I remember using ppf-o-matic and sparkedit for modding Halo Trial, good times.
Holy shit, indeed! Xbox Connect, anyone too???
Halo Trial... holy shit
@ I miss it 😥
Man that brings me back.. I do remember all those years ago hearing about a tool called Prometheus. I never got really advanced with Halo 2 modding, mostly just messed around mixing and matching tags and changing weapon stats, but this is really cool dude. Nice job.
Did basic mods for halo 2 when xbox connect was a thing. I'm still stuck in the past and on the original Xbox. But this shit is nostalgic af. Keep up the good work
That Warthog plane and map were dope
Great work brother! Thank you for all of your work and effort! This is insane, people are going to definitely use this tool on everything. The OG Xbox scene has exploded in recent years, this will get a lot of use, and I think we are going to see some very creative stuff being made all around.
man does this bring me back. amazing video!
This is amazing! Thanks for making this modding tool!
Please ramble on an tell me all about the techniques used to render this grass or this water despite it having a bunch of issues or how unbelivable complicated the shader system for this game is - PLEASE BORE US WITH THE DETAILS.
God i love enthusiasts, keep it up!
Absolute banger of a channel already, btw I actually included your Pro Strcpy video as a source in an ACE essay I wrote for a computer science class
Good Ol Killtrocity map pack... Good times..
very impressive stuff, i hope it gets you whatever job you go for, you deserve it
"But I won't bore you with the details" My guy please make a second video. I want to hear everything!! You achieved what Gearbox & 343 never could for years, making Xbox, pixel-accurate shaders work. The transparency shader in HCE was broken for SO SO long; you've done awesome work here!
Man this is so amazingly cool!! Halo 2 mods still stand out in my mind as the epitome of coolness, and I still think back pleasantly occasionally. I never was able to make a published public mod myself, but I messed around with the tools and made really crappy edits of maps. I had the O'Reilly book Halo 2 Hacks and read it cover to cover several times, the Black art of Halo mods book also, and still have youtube playlists with all the cool videos people had made of their custom levels.
I am speechless to see that you worked on this, lol. It is so cool but I'm also like 'why?'. I guess I fully resigned to thinking the dream wouldn't happen, because it was so complicated and convoluted to do, but there's a compelling reignition from you.
I also work on video games for a living now too, and I have made a Lot of mods for other games. And I've certainly made custom maps where the audience was 5 people and then the small group of us played the level and then that was over. I'm a bit worried to work on a map project where the audience is even smaller than that. But I guess offhand I could set up xemu kits more easily, and probably network them together to play custom maps, that sounds doable! Thank you! Great work!
I love you man what tool to hold thank you for the release iv been waiting 20+ years for this and now it's here 🎉
this is so hype, 11 year old me would be absolutely floored rn. can’t wait to be able to build my own custom MCC editing kit maps for original xbox… finally!
Let's make maps together ❤❤
i was far too young to be participating in these forums, but i absolutely love the hell out of halo 2. the modding scene is something that absolutely fascinated me, and its wild this actually finally happened! it was only a matter of time lol. congrats man! this is incredible!
This is absolutely awesome! I’d enjoy a longer video going into the technicals even if I wouldn’t understand everything. I think that would be very interesting. I’ll definitely be checking this tool out!
People still play Halo 2 online especially the Brazilians. And people will use this tool. It would be cool to add maps from other games.
Omg I saw one of the paintball mods i helped test in this video!!!
Paintball3r if you’re out there, what up from Dootuz!!!
Wow, what a name drop, I was not expecting to hear anything about Prom in the year 2025 lol
....god this whole saga has been amazing to follow. Also the naming of files during map dev work sure is relatable. Beautiful work, and thank you for capping off this 20 year journey. It's beyond amazing to see.
Edit: holy shit, I think I still have the PSD files from making that golden logo used in that web banner somewhere still. I should try to dig those up haha.
Great work man. I only got into halo mods in the last few years, but this is really fun to see. maybe ill have to port some mods to xbox for fun :)
Do it !!!
I'm gonna use this, just because you said you doubt someone would, just wait! This is incredible!
Honestly I think you'd be amazed. If they find a way to easily incorporate modded halo maps on to Insignia then I could totally see an Xbox mod scene revival
This is awesome man, way to do it
Thank you for this. I used to be on the halomods forums back in the early days and this video really brought back some sweet memories.
Cracked dev. Respect.
somebody get this into InfernoPlus' hands
Hell yeah... keeping the dream alive
Nostalgic 😢 I remember playing some of those mods on LAN and having a blast with my friends. The Halo 2 modded mappacks were incredible!
Seeing some of those names and mods again, what a trip. Does this mean the Prometheus section of the forum will finally get unlocked now?
Holy nostalgia flash back. I haven't thought about modding halo since the CE on PC days.
Sick, I might think about porting my Metroid Prime 2 Multiplayer Map Pack to Halo 2 Xbox.
Hats off man! Gotta at least throw you a comment to get more views on this. Good luck in your future endeavors!
Hyped 4 Prometheus and it is open source code ❤
the internet needs passion projects like this. legendary
This is either the biggest troll of my entire life, or the most unbelievable turn of events ever. I legit thought it was always just a trolly meme. CRAZY.
I just wanted to say that this post was hott thank you for all your work. Literal hero.
Hey! Best of luck making your own game! (if you are still determined to do that) I sure do wonder what kind of game your technical skills inspire you to make.
Very impressive stuff, i remember playing halo custom edition years back.
Holds a place in my heart
Remarkable!
I’d love to hear the nerdy details about what you learned digging through reverse engineering their setups. Like, for real, I’d watch the half an hour grass talk. 😅
Hope to see you make more videos, strcpy vid was interesting, and this looks pretty dope
Wow amazing work! Folks need heroes Chief. Looks like we've got something to smile about. Have you seen insignia yet?
This is insane work, thank you so much for making this tool ! I CANT BELIEVE ITS HERE !!!!
This warms my broken heart. I would have eaten this up like candy back in 2005.
I would love to take your tools and try to build my own game, some sort of total conversion of Halo 2.
Unfortunately I'm too steeped into other game-making projects, especially with trying to release a commercial game. But it still warms my heart that someone made this tool.
God speed, good sir.
ModernVintageGamer, get on this now!!!
I don't like how tempted I am. To make an Xbox mod again
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE I NEED TO USE MY XBOX
Do it homie please ❤❤
"i know no one is gonna use this tool" bud you just made halo 1 and 2 modding a thing for game preservation enthusiast, give yourself some credits please.
I am going to use this too ❤
Exactly. Already shared the video
OMFG !! I've been waiting years for this!!!!😮 Use to mode halo back in the days and couldn Wait for Prometheus!!!!
This is so dang impressive!
awesome work! crazy seeing my mod featured here 😂
This is some amazing work!!
Shooting plasma bursts from a flying inflatable dinosaur.
This is the future I was promised! Well done!
I would LOVE to be bored by the details of the shader system! Technical stuff about halo is always interesting
700 views 40 comments holy pizza. I remember when I was 13 I downloaded Dot Halo and changed the ghost to shoot coconuts, then I changed the SMG to shoot fusion coils which would immediately explode as they were fired and send you flying :)
Absolutely insane! This is amazing
I hope if (hopefully WHEN) we get a Halo 3 fan port to PC, we have this level of support and accuracy for it from fans one day. It'd be great to have the full trilogy.
If I want to go ahead and design a map for OG Xbox Halo 2, what tools would you recommend? It'd be nice to create the map geometry with ease of importing in mind.
Also, thank you so much for the incredible work you've done here!
Great video!
Man I know nothing about halo tooling or even halo, I don't know how that video pop'd into my feed (well I kinda like video games, so...)
But please don't forget to release you tool whatever you achieve.
You've done so much, people will know what to do with your artwork
Gg
Great, all we need is a time machine now and send this 20 years back in time
This is why Halo is the best game ever and he has the best community ever !! Thank u bro for your time and your working ❤
There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?
I would love to see some new maps for halo 2 xbox, I hope some day we'll get new maps for insignia too but I doubt that'll happen
Holy flashbacks… I remember using dothalo and it was prime. Good times
Incredible!
Wow, amazing work. I hope you can land a great job because of this.
I started modding modding in 2006. I think we all have a big project we started but never finished.
Never thought you would come back from the tony hawk exploit
If I ran a studio, you would be hired
7:50 I legit thought these were little rainbow ducks waddling their way towards you at first hahah. Well done make and best of luck getting that bag in the industry!! You already have the skills now just network and slide into those recruiters or other software engineers dms at companies saying you'd love to hear about their experience getting in the industry over a google meets call or something.
Nicely done!
outstanding work
They're detailed & nice mods, tbqh.